Indeed, we had some small talk at the beginning because her mother is from St. John's, was born on Newtown Road, which is down the road, and is a parishioner at a church just at the end of my street. Those are good things. I think I put it to her that if you're half Newfoundlander, it means you're a very practical person.
We had a good first meeting, I would say. I wish it had happened earlier, because we're all eager to get to work, but of course, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate only last week. As I said, I raised Line 5 and I raised Keystone and I expressed our disappointment with that decision. I expressed our serious concerns about threats to our energy security. But this relationship is much bigger than just those two issues, with the 70 pipelines that criss-cross the border as well as the three dozen transmission lines.
Secretary Granholm brings a lot of enthusiasm to the file. I believe we will work very well together to the benefit of workers and to the benefit of our natural resource sectors.
There is significant alignment, as I said, not only with the goals of the Government of Canada but also with the goals of the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan on things like critical minerals and on CCUS. I had a conversation yesterday morning with Minister Savage and Minister Nally of the Government of Alberta to discuss CCUS and my raising of that with Secretary Granholm and how important that is to North America.
I more or less paraphrased things I noticed Secretary Granholm saying long before she was a nominee—that there's a threefold mission: to have net-zero emissions by 2050, lowering emissions wherever and whenever we can; to have an economy that continues to grow and prosper, which is pivotal; and to have no one left behind, no energy-producing region, like mine, and no energy workers left behind. That's what we're working on for the benefit of workers on both sides of the border.